Monday, the 8th of May, a heavy overcast made sunglasses unnecessary as I hauled my bicycle from the basement and my five bags from the room. By shuffling things around on Sunday evening, I managed to get more weight moved aft on the bike. OsmAnd software led me easily up the left bank of the Danube and over the great river into Buda. The sky cleared as I crossed the bridge. Continue reading
The BP-17 Translation Conference main program opened on Friday morning, 5 May, at the belle époque Urania Theatre. A series of 18-minute TED-X style talks filled the day from 09:40 to 21:00 that night. Talks, coffee breaks, lunch and supper all took place at the theatre. By the way, BP stands for “business + practice,” although we had fun making up all sorts of other expansions of those two letters (http://bpconf.com/story-bp-translation-conferences/). Continue reading
Wednesday the 3rd of May, I awoke to an overcast morning with the threat of more rain. The air smelled fresh as it does in a clean place with the air recently rinsed. I had planned to take the 13:59 train to Budapest, so I rose late and fixed myself a leisurely breakfast. I rode to the station (only 600 m away) with almost an hour to spare, just to be sure that I had not read any signs wrong. The station had walk-on access to the platform from the street. Continue reading
Monday was May Day, also Labor Day and a major holiday in much of the world – especially the former Warsaw Pact countries. I knew that everything would be closed, so I had bought some yoghurt and brioches at the 05-22 market last night for breakfast. My neighbors (two Germans, one Austrian, one Swiss) all drove off to find breakfast, I know not where. Continue reading
As I passed from Italy into Slovenia on Wednesday, the 26th of April, the rain began to fall lightly. The border was only 12 km from the town of Kazlje, where I would be staying with Couchsurfing hosts Marco and Arletta. Sežana disappeared suddenly. I found myself on a well-paved highway rolling gently through a thick wood. Continue reading
On Saturday, April Fool’s Day, I shut off the water, closed the gas bottle under the sink, opened the main power to the flat, and locked the door. After dropping the key in the mailbox, 
I rode to World Bike Formia for a final farewell to Vincenzo and Benedetta, and to pick up the WBF cap that they had waiting for me. Then I stopped by Tempo Prezioso for another quick farewell. River Run 2017 was about to begin. Continue reading
SEVEN YEARS AGO, I set out on my bicycle to see if I could support myself exclusively from my work (translation) while living on the road. For the last quarter of 2013, I rode the Southern Swing 2013, which you can read about by choosing that category in this blog. A lot has changed since then, and today I want to discuss those changes. Continue reading
When this blog was six weeks old, I summarized what I had learned from the three rides to date. Seven years and many thousands of kilometers later, those lessons have stood the test of time, but I have learned a couple of new ones. I had not met Cheryl back then, and my mentor has taught me much more than I could have learned alone. Continue reading
Starting this week, I will begin a series of updates to the posts about working on the road. It is, after all, the reason that I started this blog, and much has changed in eight years. Enjoy! Continue reading
Answering my challenge, Ask Me Anything, my friend Gio from Miami wrote:
“How do manage to keep your languages active and up to date while on the road?” Continue reading
